Product Description

Hey, That’s My Fish! is an engaging, award-winning board game of strategic fish hunting, in which 2-4 players control determined penguins hungry for their next meal on a bustling Antarctic ice floe. Since Hey, That’s My Fish! was originally published in 2003, it has become widely popular as an engrossing and strategic board game for casual family and tactical play.

Penguins must have a good P.R. agent. First they have a hit movie with “March of
the Penguins”, and now a new game. Hey! That’s My Fish! is a game with a cute theme
of hungry penguins vying for their next meal.

The game is a remake of Pingvinas, co-designed by Lithuanian Alvydas Jakeliunas and
German Gunter Cornett. A large ice floe is formed by 60 hexagon tiles. Each tile
depicts from 1 – 3 fish, and players will maneuver their penguins (2 – 4, depending
upon the number of players) over the tiles in attempts to capture and hoard as many
fish as possible. The player hoarding the most fish once the harvest is complete
wins the game, and eats well during the harsh winter.

After placing their penguins onto the floe, players take turns moving one penguin
and capturing a tile. A penguin must move in a straight line – no turns allowed –
and may not move over other penguins or gaps in the floe. The tile the penguin
vacated is taken by the player and added to his fish hoard. Of course, grabbing the
tiles with more fish is advantageous, so there is usually fierce competition over
securing these locations.

As tiles are removed, gaps in the floe occur, and eventually separate islands begin
to form. Being alone on a sizeable island may be lonely, but the yield in fish can
be substantial. Thus, one of the strategies in the game is to create a separate
island with an abundance of fish, and isolate one of your penguins on this island.
This isn’t an easy task when playing with numerous players, but if accomplished, the
reward could well be a victory.

If a player is unable to move any of his penguins, his harvesting is complete. He
removes his penguins from the game, and keeps the tiles upon which they rested.
Play continues until all players are unable to move their penguins. To determine
the “Prince of the Penguins”, players tally the number of fish on the tiles they
harvested.

The rules are very easy with no ambiguities. Play is swift: 20 minutes or so seems
the usual time frame. In spite of this, though, the game is quite tactical in
nature, and there are numerous important decisions to be made throughout the short
duration. While gathering fish is most important, players must also play
defensively in order to prevent opponents from cordoning territory from which they
can reap the benefits without outside competition. Additionally, it is useful to
isolate opponents’ penguins so they may no longer move, or only have one or two more
fish they can capture before running out of space. Nasty, but hey … to the bold
goes the most fish!

Hey! That’s My Fish! is fun, fast and tactical, one of those perfect games for when
time is short, or when you want to introduce folks to gaming. The theme is non-
threatening, and the rules can be explained in a minute or two. Yet, the tactics
and choices are significant, so skill prevails over randomness. Plus, who could
resist those adorable, smiling penguins?

I am always looking for a light game, light on the rules, that has
strategy built in and especially interaction with the players on the
board. I love strategy games. Even more with games where I
have at least some control over what is going on. The biggest
challenge facing the crowd of people that I play with is trying to
get them to try something new, and this was no different when I
pulled out my new copy of "HEY! That's my fish!" When I started
pulling out the quality pieces with the cute little penguins some
heads did turn. Then I showed everyone that there are only four
pages to the rules, three if you do not count the cover page,
they were like "Well let's give this a try." We tried and tried and
tried and now "Hey! That's my fish!" Has become an instant
classic. Whether you want something to eat pizza laugh and play
or something to do between a couple more in depth games "HEY!
Thats my fish" will fill a desperately needed void in your closet.

Every once in a while, I'll play a game that is so simple,
yet works
so well, that I think to myself, "Why didn't I think of
that?" And
the answer, of course, is that I'm not a brilliant game
designer who
can take a very simple idea and make it into a challenging
game.
Fortunately, a couple of designers were brilliant enough -
thus giving
us Hey! That's My Fish (Mayfair
and
Phalanx
Games, 2005 -
Alvydas
Jakeliunas &
Guntar
Cornett). The theme is that of penguins jumping
around a series of ice floes, as they gobble up as many fish as
possible.

Yet in all actuality it's simply an abstract game, with
players
moving their pawns around, trying to cut one another off and
score the
most points. Yet I've encountered few abstract games such
as this
one. It's simple enough for my five year old daughter to
comprehend
and play, yet deep enough that it can be played seriously by
gamers.
Personally, I think it's more on the light side of abstract
games (it
should be played fairly lightly, anyway). Still, any
abstract game
that can be played in less than twenty minutes, hold a
decent amount
of strategy, and play almost as well with three and four
players as it
does with two is worth getting in my book.

A random grid of sixty hexagon tiles is set up on the
board, in
alternating rows of seven and eight tiles each. Each of
these tiles
(ice floes) shows one, two, or three fish. Starting with
one player,
each player places one penguin on an ice flow that has only
one fish.
Players continue to place penguins until they have reached
their
maximum (two penguins in a four player game, three in a
three player
game, four in a two player game). The youngest player then goes
first, with play proceeding clockwise.

On a player's turn, they simply move one of their
penguins in a
straight line as far as they want to. Penguins cannot jump
empty
spaces or other penguins, nor change direction. After a
penguin has
moved, the owner removes the ice flow that the penguin
started it on,
and adds it to their stash. Play then passes to the next
player. If
a player cannot move any of their penguins on their turn,
they must
remove all penguins along with the ice flows on which they
reside, and
they must wait until the other players finish. After all
players are
finished with the game, they count the total number of fish
on their
ice flows, with the player who has obtained the most fish
winning the
game!

Some short comments on this short, simple game...

1.) Components: The game could have been more abstract,
but the
arctic theme makes sense and gives us a chance to have a cute,
interesting layout when playing. The penguin wooden pieces
(peneeples?) are great and much more interesting to move
around than
simple wooden pawns, and the artwork on the tiles is well
done. All
the pieces fit in a smallish box, but one that is still
quite a bit
bigger than is needed. The game requires very little space
- just a
pile of tiles and some penguins.

2.) Rules: The rules are on four pages, and that's almost
exaggerating, since they are so simple and easy. It's one
of the
easiest games I've ever taught; everyone who played, from my
five year
old daughter to my normal gaming group quickly understood
it. Even my
three year old daughter almost grasped the concepts!
Nothing hard
about this one.

3.) Strategy: In our first game, which I played with my
daughter, we
both simply moved our penguins as best we could to the three
fish
floes. My daughter won, which made me take a deeper look at
the game.
In subsequent games (many of them), I quickly realized that
if a
player was able to cut off a section of the main ice floe
with only
one of their penguins on it, they could score big! In fact,
taking
charge of these valuable islets is the key to victory. Each
game is a
careful dance of penguins, as players attempt to maneuver
them around,
forcing other penguins into areas from which they can't
move, and
seclude their own penguins on lucrative sections. However,
since a
person only has a few penguins and only a certain amount of
spaces to
move them on, choices shouldn't be that difficult. Yet if a
player
loses, it's because of their penguin movement, not luck.
The only
luck in the game is the initial setup of the ice floes, and that
simply changes the nuances of the game - nothing else.

4.) Players and Fun Factor: A two player game can be a
tense affair,
with players trying to use one or more of their penguins to
battle it
out. It can be great for a player if they manage to strand
one of
their penguins on a small island but terrible if two ore
more are
stuck on that same island. Adding more players into the mix
changes
the dynamics of the games quite a bit. Players must realize
that the
board will change more between moves, and it's a little
easier for two
players to shut a third out of the game. For this reason, I
prefer the
game most with two players, but I didn't mind the game with
more. For
one thing, it's tremendously fast, which allows players to
play again,
and it just gives one a very satisfied feeling. Even if you
lose, you
still managed to get SOME fish.

Hey! That's My Fish! is a bit of a rarity - a fast
playing abstract
game that offers a satisfying experience and isn't just
considered a
light bit of frivolity. Sure, now I can easily beat my
daughter,
because I have a better ability to look several moves in
advance. But
I was able to teach her sound tactical moves with this game,
and we
were able to compete on a semi-competitive level; and that's
better
than most abstract games. And better yet, a group of
"heavy" gamers
can play the same game and have a tense, taut experience.
One game
that can do all that in a short time frame is almost a
must-have for a
collection.

Pingvinas is a very easy abstract game with a penguin theme. The 60 white wooden hexes (quite nice these as they are fairly chunky) are arranged in one contiguous land mass. As these are going to simulate an ice floe melting, the hexes will need to be picked up and you need to leave space between the hexes to do so. Each ice floe hex has a symbol of one to three fish on it. Players take turns to place their penguins on the hexes until all penguins are placed.

Each player now moves one of his penguins in a straight line along one of the hexsides as far as they want, but avoiding gaps (water) and other penguins. You score the number of fish from the hex that you left and remove it from the board. The ice floe board disintegrates in this way and you keep moving until no-one can move any further. The last hex of fish counts towards your score of fish, with the winner being the person with the most fish.

It is extremely quick to play and the white hex tiles make the feeling the ice flow almost real with their coolness. The disintegration system is so good and simple, that you wonder whether it has been done before. It's one of those 'it's so obvious, I wish I'd thought of that' types of systems. And it works of course.

I've played the game several times but enjoyed it with four people best as there is more carving up more quickly and this type of game needs to be played fast. Replayability is high as the board is different each time, and the tactics seem to resolve around getting the three point fish hexes (obviously) and isolating a large flow that no-one else can get to, so that you can concentrate on movement of your other penguins. Pingvinas is light, amusing and a slightly charming way to spend 20 minutes with a game. It's also easy to introduce to non-regular gamers.